Ambassador Andrei Kelin’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One, 20 October 2024

📺 Watch Ambassador Andrei Kelin’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One (20 October 2024). Topics include the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Russia-UK relations, the Skripal case, US elections and more. Skripal case • We have put enormous amount of questions to the investigators. None of them have been answered at all, and we still expect that we will have a contact with the Skripals because they are Russian citizens. We have asked many times, both formally and informally, that we should talk to these people in order to establish the truth. But so far we have no answer. • [The Salisbury provocation] was a big case, which was initially staged to drive a wedge in relations between Russia and the UK. Ukraine conflict • The British government is waging an aggressive war against Russia by the hands of the Ukrainians. This is a proxy war led by the United Kingdom’s government by providing lethal weapons [to Ukraine] with which it is killing Russian soldiers and civilians. • What worries us is that there is no [actual] peace plan in the “peace plan“ presented by Zelensky. He does not want peace talks. He keeps asking for more and more: NATO [membership], European Union assistance, defence packages, anything, but nothing about negotiations at all. US elections • For us, it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s Democrats or Republicans, because there is a bipartisan consensus on the issue of Russia, and that is anti-Russian sentiment, anti-Russian position. They continue to state that Russia should be strategically defeated. Russia’s nuclear doctrine • We are changing our doctrine. It is connected to the discussion in the West [about an option to allow Kiev to use western long-range missiles to strike deep into the Russian territory]. The targeting, the flight plan, the information from the satellites and the launch itself can only be done by the UK specialists if we are talking about these missiles supplied to Kiev by the UK. In this case the UK will be an accomplice of the Ukrainian forces. And we have to reconsider this situation. And, of course, some measures will be prepared. Russia-UK relations • We have a 450-year history of relations. And if the UK government has taken a wrong position, sooner or later they will acknowledge that this is the position of a loser. When they realise that they are losing this case [in Ukraine] and it was wrong, then perhaps there will come a time when we will have a discussion. • We didn’t start it. We didn’t start to spoil our relationship, to cut off all the ties that bind us. So, the initiative is on the side of the British government.